1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic layout system including an information processing apparatus, a method for controlling the information processing apparatus, and a program controlling the information processing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
The today's merchandise environment allows a user to purchase a favorite product selected from a wide variety of commercial products and tends to reduce the life cycle of each product. Meanwhile, Internet-based customization services are a recent trend among consumers. In such circumstances, the customer relationship management (CRM) and the one-to-one marketing are prospective techniques that can meet or surpass customer satisfaction and increase the number of clients.
The one-to-one marketing is a kind of the database-based marketing that establishes a database storing personal attribute information (e.g., age, sex, interest, taste, purchase history, etc) of clients, and can propose a product satisfying a need of each client by analyzing database information. The variable print is a business style representing the one-to-one marketing.
The development of desktop publishing (DTP) techniques and digital printing apparatuses enables a variable printing system to customize an output document according to a preference of each client. In this respect, it is desirable to optimize the layout of contents according to a request from each client.
To generate a document, a conventional variable print includes steps of creating a template including containers on a document, relating the template with a database, and pouring content data from the database into containers of the template. In this case, each container is an area into which content data is poured.
However, each container has a fixed size. If content data (text and/or image data) to be inserted into a container has a large volume, the content data may not be fully accommodated or disposed in the container. Furthermore, if content data has a small size compared to the capacity of a container, an empty space may remain in the container.
To solve these problems, there is an automatic layout system that can set a container whose size is variable according to text data and image data. Namely, the automatic layout system can change a container size with reference to a size of content data poured into each container and can solve the above-described problems.
However, according to the system that changes a container size according to the size of content data, if a large size of content data is inserted into all containers of a template, each container has an expanded size and may overlap other container.
To solve this problem, the technique discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-216174 adjusts the layout of plural containers by relating these containers so as to avoid an overlap between neighboring containers and determine the size of each container similar to a required size of content data.
Furthermore, a variable printing system can determine a layout of a document including multiple records according to a multi-record technique. The multi-record technique can analyze client information and create a document that involves plural records including content data requested by each client.
An exemplary multi-record technique discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-216182 includes processes of generating an area referred to as “flow area”, extracting a record including content data satisfying the conditions set for the flow area, pouring the extracted record into a template area referred to as “sub-template”, adjusting the layout of the record in the sub-template, and finalizing the position (location) of the adjustment result in the flow area.
However, the size of a sub-template discussed in the above-described Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-216182 is fixed regardless of content data to be poured into the sub-template. Accordingly, if a layout object is a large-size content data exceeding the capacity of a sub-template initially set, the multi-record technique discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-216182 may reduce the size of the content data to a great extent compared to a size intended by a creator of the content data.
In this respect, a sub-template variable according to a size of content data may solve the above-described problem. The size of a variable sub-template is dependent on content data to be poured therein. Therefore, if content data has a large size, a variable sub-template becomes larger correspondingly. If content data has a small size, a variable sub-template becomes smaller correspondingly. As a result, the finalized layout of each sub-template may not be uniform in height when the variable sub-templates are aligned in the horizontal direction.
Therefore, the above-described conventional technique cannot satisfy a client who requests a catalog for advertisement that includes commercial products well-balanced in a table or matrix pattern.